12/12/2024
Hey all!
This AMAZING show is on Friday. We really hope to see you there. Here are some words directly from the man himself, Doug Schutte, about what The Kings of Christmas meant:
"THE KINGS? Nothing at The Bard will make me smile more than my memories of this show. I was still figuring out how to run the restaurant. I scrambled to put together a mini season when we got the green light to open the theatre. I had everything else slated, but knew we needed a holiday play. So I listed a title: THE KINGS OF CHRISTMAS. I had not written a word of it. I didn't write a word of it until the first week of October. I didn't print a copy of it until the morning of the first read-through with the cast. What I had written had been a strange combination: the story of an old lady and a cat I had been sent via Google News. A series of magic shows I had just booked at the Bard. My love of Elvis. I had broken a host of the playwriting conventions I told my writing students you shouldn't break. I was convinced the cast would quit after the reading. Then, I was convinced audiences would hate it. Reviews would slam it. It would ruin The Bard.
Then the magic happened. Then people started asking for it again. Then, during the second year, I had audiences fill out a card to decide if KINGS would be back for year 3, or I would write something new. It wasn't even close. The next year a bank manager walks over behind the teller while I am depositing funds and leans in and says, "I just wanted to tell you that it's not Christmas until THE KINGS OF CHRISTMAS." After that, there was never really a question. THE KINGS had become a part of the holiday season for hundreds of people in Louisville. Media outlets were calling it a Louisville Holiday Tradition. And for 1/6 of every year for over a decade, I have lived in THE KINGS living room and with the King family. 1/6th of each year. That means I have spent 2 entire years of my life doing KINGS.
Money has never been the thing I have chased. Making money has never made me feel successful--which is good, because apparently I am not very good at it. Knowing you love this show, knowing that I bring laughter and joy to you...nothing has ever made me feel as proud, as rich...as alive. And you might be thinking, "isn't it weird that the thing you are most proud of is just about the dumbest play in history?" And I say...have you met me? I can't imagine it any other way. I can't thank you enough, but I'll try:
THANK YOU. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.
-SCHUTTE"
https://art-sanctuary.ticketleap.com/the-kings-of-christmas-by-doug-shutte/?fbclid=IwY2xjawHHK79leHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHT0sOisMxL-DeWCB_ywoHglFuQh7KLCkJ0iZjxIn3zmTFl56lTaMZsbVrg_aem_HXsyv1Za63kMcBaeEUSTtQ
